One of the most surprising things about moving to Vermont was discovering the number of artists, writers, actors, musicians, and other artistic people who live here. They are literally everywhere. Vermont is smaller than tiny (teeny?) but it's brimming with talented folks.

One of the best known is author Archer Mayor , a resident of Townsend, a beautiful village in southern VT. His crime stories have been best sellers for about two decades. Mayor's 19th novel, The Catch, has just been published by St. Martin's Press. Like all his Detective Joe Gunther (the main character) stories, this one also takes place in Vermont but it soon moves to Maine where Joe is in pursuit of two "evil doers" as George Bush would say.

Mayor himself probably would not make a very good character for a novel because he would not be believable - too much of an over achiever! He has been a "scholarly editor, a researcher for TIME-LIFE Books, a political advance-man, a theater photographer, a newspaper writer/editor, a lab technician for Paris-Match Magazine in Paris, France, and a medical illustrator . . . He is also a death investigator for Vermont’s Chief Medical Examiner, a deputy for the Windham County Sheriff’s Department, and has 25 years experience as a volunteer firefighter and EMT."

Unfortunately there is not much more information about his background except that he grew up in the US, Canada, and France but that just piqued my curiosity even more. It would be interesting to see more details about his family, early life, education, and details about his work experiences.

If you would like to meet him in person, he has a busy calendar of personal appearances this month and next throughout New England and New York. You can see the schedule here. .